Note 774 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

In 1696, the only newspapers were weekly; and the first daily paper appeared in the reign of Anne. Compare Simmonds's Essay on Newspapers, in Journal of Statist. Society, vol. iv. p. 113, with Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers, vol. i. pp. 167, 175, vol. ii. p. 90; and Nichols's Lit. Anec. vol. iv. p. 80. In 1710, they, instead of merely communicating news, as heretofore, began to take part in ‘the discussion of political topics’ (Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 443); and, as this change had been preceded a very few years by the introduction of cheap political pamphlets (see a curious passage in Wilson's Life of De Foe, vol. ii. p. 29), it became evident that a great movement was at hand in regard to the diffusion of such inquiries. Within twenty years after the death of Anne, the revolution was completed; and the press, for the first time in the history of the world, was made an exponent of public opinion. The earliest notice of this new power which I have met in parliament, is in a speech delivered by Danvers, in 1738; which is worth quoting, both because it marks an epoch, and because it is characteristic of that troublesome class to which the man belonged. ‘But I believe,’ says this distinguished legislator,—‘but I believe the people of Great Britain are governed by a power that never was heard of, as a supreme authority, in any age or country before. This power, sir, does not consist in the absolute will of the prince, in the direction of parliament, in the strength of an army, in the influence of the clergy, neither, sir, is it a petticoat government: but, sir, it is the government of the press. The stuff which our weekly newspapers are filled with, is received with greater reverence than acts of parliament; and the sentiments of one of these scribblers have more weight with the multitude than the opinion of the best politician in the kingdom.’ Parl. Hist. vol. x. p. 448.